Mirror
by KiGaMin
Summary: Two years later, their determination to find Ging Freeccs led them back to York Shin City. All hell breaks loose when a mysterious assassin leads a ruthless vendetta against the Mafia. Desperate to get closer to their goal, Gon and Killua agree to help a hunter assigned on this case, along with her daughter, Hanaiko. Except, they have no idea how messed up it would get. (KilluaxOC)
1. Prologue

A/N: **This fanfiction can be read and understood no matter which version of the anime you watched, or even if you just read the manga. The events pictured are based on the same plot. Nonetheless, some elements might be taken from the 1999 anime, as it is the only version I watched and it pictures some events that never happened in the manga (Anita, the storm exam, etc.).  
However, I didn't take into account Kurapika's Reminiscences prequel chapters or the movie Phantom Rouge. I haven't been inspired by either of them. This story is solely based on the anime/manga, except the Alluka arc, which I purposefully ignore. And on my imagination. Any possible similarity with anything else wasn't my intention, unless I openly mention it, even with the movie. Do note I came up with most of the plot before the movie was available or even planned.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Hunter x Hunter, which is the property of Yoshihiro Togashi. I therefore don't own any of his canon characters or plot and I will never claim them as mine. However, I do own my original characters, my original plot, and my ideas.**

* * *

_**Notice **_

**Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the **_**Dizzy Circus**_**!**

**This performance will be special, for I promise you a psychedelic tale filled with riddles to solve, with various, independent events that will eventually knit a tight bond together until they give shape to a clear mosaic.**

**Please sit back to enjoy this vivid canvas, but do not overlook its intricate frame, for it is holding the painting, connecting the four corners, linking all the characters and the events together.  
For it is the root.  
The start.  
The foundation. **

**The Reason.**

**However, please beware! The protagonists of this story might not be the ones really pulling the strings.  
After all, darkness covers more arcane mysteries than light does. But do not forget that it is itself a gradient of innumerable shades; the ones acting in the shadows might as well be oblivious to some essential secret meant to be plucked much farther in the inmost depths of The Forest of Darkness…**

**Anyway, do not worry, because I, the Joker, will show you the real path through this dense forest. I, the Joker, will assist Little Thumbling as he drops the little stones for you to follow. I, the joker, will gradually enlighten the hazardous way leading to the Grand Final.**

**My dear audience, I, the Joker, will be the ringmaster for this performance!**

_**Enjoy my masterpiece…**_

* * *

_Five years ago…_

"No, wait! P-Please, don't kill me ye-" a pleading, stammering voice desperately strived to be heard before it fainted in rapid and uninterrupted coughs. Blood droplets ran down the man's chin and got trapped in his filthy, torn clothes, spreading dangerously on the fibers of their fabric. A wandering black cat stopped by, only witness of the scene. Its glowing, yellow eyes stared unflinchingly for a moment at the victim, but it soon hopped away to attend to its feline business.

That man was going to die, who cared anyway?

Near him, the Joker slowly walked, a step then another, his narrow golden eyes staring at the weak, defeated, quivering being. Admiring his masterpiece. A death symphony played as his heels hit the ground, a cavernous but melodious, hollow but harmonious sequence of waves from beyond a grave.

With each step he took, the man's breathe accelerated. With each centimeter reduced between them, the man's heart missed a beat. With each single atom that enclosed the distance between them, the man's vision got blurrier.

He was a mess.  
And the Joker liked that.

_Tremble, Tremble Little Rat… _

Far in the background, a dog howled, soon accompanied by its fellows, a long and heavy chorus of demise escorting the dead on his way to hell. A panicked bat screamed blue murder in the only nearby tree denuded of its leaves, the hooky branches twisting and turning, casting their spooky shadows on the dancing, smirking demons partying on the fissured walls.

The man hardly caught his breathe, and painfully slid on the dirty muddy pavement of York Shin's abandoned outskirts, desperate about finding a shelter, about avoiding the unavoidable, about escaping from the inescapable.  
The inevitable.  
The cold air numbed his limbs; he chattered his teeth and felt the sore muscles in his whole body tense up –if that was still possible- as shivers and goosebumps travelled on his skin, in order to alert him of what he was already knew but still couldn't accept.  
The unacceptable.

_Try to run far from the Cat…_

Fate.  
Tragedy.  
His back hit the wall.  
He was done for.

He widened his eyes as if he hadn't caught a glimpse of his murderer yet, as if he wanted to let him in his mind to accept the brutal truth, the ugly truth, the hopeless truth. His nostrils inhaled and exhaled erratic and unsteady whiffs of acerbic sweat mixed with mold, musty dust.

He couldn't end like that! He was one of the strongest, how could this lunatic bring him down that easily?

Nonsense!

A scornful rodent scratched disdainfully the floor, anticipating its macabre dinner when the Joker would have done his job. Cannibalism it was. After all, wasn't the man just a poor mucky rat waiting for its execution?

No hope was left.

_But he makes all your hopes flat…_

The Joker languidly licked his card and passionately rolled his blood-shot eyes in their sockets. Small trickles of shiny red liquid gushed out of the wound on his tongue, rushing on the sharp Bristol sheet and drawing a spider net on it.

Irony.

An insane and horror-struck gaze was the only reply to that vision the man could ever make. Tetanized, petrified, frozen in that yelling terror.

Swirling mad maze in his brain… little brilliant dots in his vision … infinite fractals of decay in his stomach… itchy tangy stings on his skin… sour bitter confusion on his tongue… acute high-pitched laughs in his hearing…

Mad, mad, mad, mad, mad…

_And drives you totally mad… _

There was nothing he could really do.

He'd die, just like that, and no one would know apart from the black cat and the choir of dogs and the angry bat and the hungry rat.

He'd die, just like that, watching the crazy Joker walk and cut his throat with that card. That simple. A single dash, then slash, and gash, gush, ooze.

Wasn't that good actually, to have so many friends coming to his funeral, like the black cat and the choir of dogs and the angry bat and the hungry rat?

Would it even hurt? It would be fast, right?

He could just wait. Wisely so… and accept it…

After all, it'd save both of them time…

In the end…

"Wait!"

The Joker suddenly stopped.

Was it really him who shouted that clear and steady request?

A miracle? A sudden outburst of courage? Bravery? Survival instinct? Downright suicidal tendencies?

"I… I have a deal…" the man stumbled uneasily, moving unsurely his lips, unable to keep his eyes from darting uncontrollably. The Joker raised a thin eyebrow and urged him to continue with a nonchalant and offhand gesture, "I know you want the Head… I coul- I can help you get there!" he hastily ended his faltered sentence, instinctively moving his arms to his head, to protect himself from a blast that could come from anywhere at any time.

He risked a peek at the amused jester, barely hanging on the little sanity left in his exhausted skull.

"Oh, is that so?~" the crackled voice of the Joker resonated in his frightened, wildly and loudly roaring ear-drums, the haunting, leisurely, playful and demented hiss that caressed the echo of chaos.

The man automatically nodded, frantically so, brutally caught up in a sudden frenzy.

"Yes!" more nods, "And I could find you more strong opponents to fight!" a more confident demeanor.

He still had a chance!

He could be saved!

The other one threw away his card and shrugged. Crossing his arms, he ran a keen, edged crimson nail on his cheek, seemingly wondering about whatever such a psychotic clown could.

"How could I make them think you're dead then?" the death-knell question came back at the man, a boomerang savagely punching him, a reality-check that left him bewildered and dumbfounded, once again, "I need to get there. You know that.~"

A feral thought crossed the victim's intuition.

He had no choice.

At least he would be left alive.

"Take my arm…" he articulated, struck all the syllables, vowels, consonants, more for himself than for the funnyman, and he pointed a shuddering finger on his biceps, "there lies the only proof you need."

Ghastly chuckle met with alarmed glances. The hysteric card-player lost his composure and gave up to a lethal burst of laughter, holding his sides and bending, coiling his body around. He needed a moment to calm down, to catch on his breathe, to be able to look at the paralyzed creature in front of him.

"Alright, I accept! ~" he joyfully cheered and raised his arms to welcome his new pet, his new toy, his new valet. An entertained expression replaced the former deranged one as he shot a slender predatory smile displaying pointed teeth.

Unexpected relief released the man of his stressful dismay.

"You won't be disappointed, I promise…"

As if it had guessed the dinner wouldn't come tonight, the loud rat ran away, its claws harrowing the dry-mudded soil. It chirped deafeningly, lousily and annoyingly so.  
But in a trice, less than half a second, a swift card had whistled through wind and pierced its fat entrails.  
There it lay, lifeless, drowning and gasping in its own disgusting blood.

It would just be for another day.

Just be more patient.

And have fun.

Let him believe he is saved. Let him think he can live. Let him savor it.  
That so-called victory.  
That so-called win.

That so-called happiness.

It was cute in a way… he looked so relieved, so reassured, so consoled, so comforted. Like he had just tamed a wild beast about to finish him off, like he had just successfully achieved the impossible, the vain, the unalterable, the hopeless. It was such a fest to the eye to watch that little rat squeaking and sighing and catching on his breathe and nearly crying.

He liked that. Oh yes, he the Joker adored, loved and loved that…  
Just let him be and then you unscrupulously crush him and let him burst between your fingers…

It would just be a delay-action kill.  
Just set the time bomb.

To kill him better later.

It will be fun…

_Tremble, Tremble little rat,  
Try to run far from the cat,  
But he makes all your hopes flat,  
And drives you totally mad…_

* * *

A/N: ... Don't you love my Twinkle twinkle little star parody...

** A brief warning about the story…**

First of all, it doesn't start with the hunter exam, but three years after it. There's no need for me to write the exam when my OC is not gonna be a hunter.

This means Gon and Killua are fifteen, since this story takes place two years after the Chimera Ants (I may be wrong to consider they turned a year older during this arc but it is not important so there is no need to change that).

As for why I rated this story as T… The main reason is probably because I don't want to take any risk. There… will be blood in the story; you already saw quite a bit in the prologue. I suppose you'll be fine if you managed to bear Ubo crushing heads and Killua ripping hearts and Hisoka losing his arms and all that gory stuff. If you were fine with the prologue, you'll surely be fine with the rest.

About the story's genres… mainly romance and crime. I promise some mystery, perhaps some thriller, definitely some puzzle, fluff, romance (duh), codes, hints, humor of course, trolling, and even sadness. But don't expect any love triangle because there won't be any. I'll try my best to entertain you!

Oh, by the way, as you might have noticed, English isn't my first language… I'm still trying to improve, so don't hesitate telling me if you see any mistake, anywhere!  
I'm also open to con/crit; I take any tip and advice.  
And, I love reviews too. So do tell me whatever you have in mind, it'll make me happy.

Last but not least, I'd love to thank my friends Lyra Klaude and Cursed Bunny, who both helped me and gave me advice for this story.

Thanks for reading and I hope you'll choose to follow me!

Buh-bye!


	2. Parallel

Chapter 1: Parallel

A/N: Hm, hey. If you're reading this first chapter, then I suppose I might have given you a little hope with that prologue. I hope I won't crush those hopes… Haha, irony.

**I'd love to thank all those who reviewed, favorite-d, alerted and such. I was sooo happy and I'm not even exaggerating! I never got such high expectations about this story so your feedback was heart-warming. You all turned out to be really nice to me. **

I loved writing that chapter. I had been planning this story for so long, it feels a little weird to finally finish a chapter… See what I mean? I was like a pregnant lady giving birth when I uploaded this story…

Special thanks to Lyra Klaude who was like the daddy who held my hand while I gave birth to this chapter! *murdered*

For those who want to know, I've already drawn Hanaiko. Just check my deviantART (not the oldest drawings please.), or look at the cover of the story (that I drew myself), though it's just a rough sketch. I've drawn my fifteen-year-old Killua too, I'll soon upload the sketch if you wanna see what he's like (I haven't colored it yet).

Sorry for blabbering. On to the story!

* * *

They always said that love required transparency between two people.

That lies and mysteries inevitably gnawed any relationship, inexorably burning any affection.

That the untold and the hidden would unavoidably freeze the passion and paralyze the tenderness.

That any single secret would yet be another droplet of acid on limestone, yet another effervescent reaction digging and digging the hole of quarrels, until it would entirely dissolve and leave nothing behind but happy memories that were soon going to vanish like the ghosts of an unpreserved love.

She didn't agree with that.  
Her definition was different.

For her, it wasn't a matter of transparency or opacity, or anything.  
But of reflection.

Two mirrors facing each other endlessly reflected one another, for an eternity, as long as they kept standing together, as long as they didn't turn away from each other, even if they were either mute or deaf.

That eternity was needed to learn about the other one, the flaws, the qualities, to exorcise each other's pains.  
That infinity was necessary for them to firmly set their love, and let it burgeon, then bloom into a flower. For them to take care of it, to water it until it turned to a fruit, to keep it alive so it didn't wither.

She didn't want to like or to be a transparent person. Of course she wouldn't like being lied to, but she wanted something else. Someone else.  
Someone whom she could see herself into, like in a looking glass, who could help her curing her insecurities and whom she could heal the scars, who could put her at ease and whom she would comfort, who could tell she was lying and whom she could guess the secrets of. Whom she would trust and who would trust her. Whom she could be herself with and who would be himself with her.

Someone she could reflect and someone who could reflect her.

She needed a mirror.

* * *

The little cursor on her screen tirelessly flashed on and off.

'_Day… I don't even know what day it is_', she started typing, her fingers rapidly tapping the keyboard with much more strength than necessary. She could peek at the bottom-right hand corner of her page to check the date, but, oh, well, she didn't feel like it. She was… too lazy.

'_I'm bored. No, take that back. I'm… undeniably, horribly, terribly, apocalyptically bored. I'm so bored I could eat a mountain._' She stopped, raising an eyebrow at what she just wrote, '_Wait, that made no sense. Like, at all. People don't eat mountains when they're bored, or at least, I hope so.'_ Twirling a strand of her warm grey hair, scratching her chin, she cast a challenging gaze at her own laptop.

' _I guess the Literature teacher is right when he says I don't make any sense. That my "style" has no flair. Who needs that anyway? I'm not a writer. In fact, I am so bored that, in spite of being the worst writer ever, I, against all odds, clicked on the MS Word's icon and started typing this… shit. That would be the best proof, the best… Oh screw it._' She narrowed her eyes and hit her head on the bed's head –such irony.

Her spring green eyes still scanning the ridiculous document, she moved the arrow on the little white cross on the top right hand corner. And she clicked. A pop-up window appeared, asking her if she wanted to save her document.

And so she did.  
Except she needed a title.

That was why she hated literary stuff. Always so complicated with titles, chapters, scenes, acts, headlines, add adjectives here, no repetition, always make sense (unless you're a famous author, in which case your nonsense is considered 'deep'), use sophisticated words, no swear words, put a meaning in everything you write in such a way that 'I dislike oranges' could end up meaning you had a traumatic childhood you spent devouring oranges that made you so disgusted you ended up boycotting oranges and leading a scorbutic life.

That was why she preferred math. Logic, regulated, precise, certain. At least there weren't a thousand ways to disagree with 'two plus two equals four', and no matter who your math teacher was, you would still be graded on the results and the way you found your results. Not on the way you cough up random pretty words.

"Lemme see…" she mumbled under her breathe, more to herself since she was all alone. She lazily moved her fingers to hit the keys, as if it were the hardest, the most difficult task ever, or probably even Hercules' thirteen work that he gave up on because he wasn't as courageous as her, Hanaiko, fourteen but almost fifteen, as she liked to complain, accomplishing the dangerous task of entitling her bored –and boring- drabble.

'Shit n°27'

That was the document's title. That was the twenty-seventh bored –and boring- drabble that she had produced since the beginning of her holidays, and that she had entitled, in all her glory, 'shit'.

Well, she did have homework. Enough to busy herself with, at least. But she had a few days left before her second semester started, during the beginning of September.  
York Shin City had the weirdest school schedule ever. It was just as if they couldn't be like everyone and end school in June or July. No, they had to end it when all the other students in the world went back to school from their spring holidays.  
She had always wondered what would happen if a student from Engrand ended school on June and moved to York Shin City, only to realize that it was barely starting there. Now that would be the best trolling ever, the best gift a parent could offer. 'Son, you are on holidays! Let's move to York Shin City!'

She scoffed at the thought.

Speaking of parents, soft and muffled steps alerted her of her father's presence. He knocked the door of her room in his own smooth manner (nothing to do with her mother's wild and brutal knocks) and slowly opened it when she grumbled something that sounded like, translated to human language, 'Yeah, get in...'

"Sweetheart?" he risked while moving to her bed. She folded her legs so he could sit and put her laptop next to her, "I'm leaving for work. I just wanted to see you before I left."

"You're leaving me to my own boredom," she yawned, stretching her arms and running a hand in her hair.

"Why don't you do your homework, instead of procrastinating like a lazy kitty?" he joked, winking at her as she scoffed and poked his cheek.

"I don't feel like it."

Before he could reply anything, the screaming noise of a hairdryer rose up. She narrowed her eyes. They exchanged a knowing gaze.

"Curses in," she started, waited, and continued, "three, two, one…"

"Holy shit, that burns!" a feminine voice yelled from the hairdryer's den.

She eyed him, proud of her 'perfect-timing' guessing, while he was chuckling. "Tribulations of Momma and her hairdryer."

His smile widened and he patted her head, getting ready to leave. "I'm just gonna kiss your mom goodbye, and then I'll be gone…"

"Hey, don't you forget something first?" she caught his sleeve as he got up and pouted, offering her cheek, "I want a goodbye kiss too."

"Fairly well, miss," he brushed her cheek with his lips, as soft as ever, as reassuring as ever. "Take care."

And he left, closing the door behind him –he knew how much she hated to see it open.

A few moments later, the jingling of the entrance door's keys indicated that her dad was gone for the day.

She got up with the idea of joining her mom before she went to work too. Slowly opening the door, she looked both ways before adventuring in the corridor.

When she was little, she used to think she was an explorer, and that corridor was the last one she had to go through before meeting with the Big Boss. She would move stealthily, her back stuck to the walls, ready to dodge any cruel trap hidden in floor, and she would prudently open the Big Cheese's room's door… Once she was there, she set her own rules. The carpet was lava, the pillows and the bed were the ground, and she, the brilliant fighter, had to hop from pillow to pillow until she reached her "basement". Oh and of course, when she needed a weapon, she stole a gun in the boss room –her mother's deodorant for that matter.

Looking back at it, she felt a bit ridiculous. She wasn't a particularly noisy person, so it was a bit astonishing that her child-self used to be so excited. Actually, it would have shocked anyone who knew her teenage-self. She was pretty laid-back, quiet and secretive, after all. And lazy.  
But now that she thought of it, her mother was indeed quite the Big Boss, so she wasn't that wrong when she was little. Sometimes, she wondered how her parents managed to get along; her father was the cream of the crop, a lovely, adorable and soft man. In comparison, her mother was quite the fiery monster, hot-headed and bad-tempered, always running here and there. They could have starred any typical video game; her father would be the poor princess abducted by the wild beast, the big boss. And well, the wild beast would be her mother.

The sound of the hairdryer had stopped when she entered her parents' room; the warm colors all around her –on the bed, the curtains, the walls- reminded her of how much she felt reassured and protected whenever she stayed here. It sure didn't quite look like a hellish landscape with a pool of lava to trap the curious explorers who had had the audacity to come that far.

"Momma?" She called, scratching her right foot with her left one.

A rasping noise followed by a few curses was the only response she got, and that was more than necessary. Heading toward the bathroom, she ended up face to face with her mother, her proud mother, her authoritarian mother feared by every single employee of the Hunter Crime Department Service basement because of her fiery temper, that Natsu that made the walls tremble… awkwardly jumping on one foot to fit her leg in her jeans.

"If Lenaic saw you this way, I'm not sure he'd ever be able to take you seriously."

The woman finally succeeded at wearing her jeans –what a handful!- and acknowledged her daughter's comment about her subordinate with a sarcastic smile. "First off, I'm not sure he'd be quite alive if he ever saw me like that."

"Dad was the only one with that privilege."

"Oh, shut up, you," the woman laughed, rearranging her bangs and trying to give some shape to her messy black hair. "Your uncle has called me; apparently he needs my help for something."

Checking the various, colorful bottles of perfume on the shelves, Hanaiko glanced at her mother, barely surprised. She only had one uncle on her mother's side. "Wing? What would he need you for?"

"Help two apprentices of his. I have to pick them up at the blimp airport after quickly checking on the basement." Natsu finished buttoning her shirt, leaving the first two open on a blue tank top. "God knows what I'll have to do, this time… He should be glad I'm such an awesome sister. Good thing I'm not working on any big case." She took the lipstick her daughter was handing her, carefully applying it on her lips, her sharp navy eyes stuck on her reflection in the mirror. She added a few more touches to her make-up and once she was satisfied, she clapped her hands and stormed out of the bathroom, soon followed by her leisurely walking girl. She made sure she hadn't forgotten anything, and once she was ready, they both exited the room and headed toward the entrance door.

"Alright Hana, I'm off, sweetie," Natsu casually said, opening the door, and, once again, cursing because it wouldn't open correctly. That was probably because of all those times she had slammed it angrily at an annoying neighbor asking her to lower her tone. But that, of course, wasn't her problem. The problem was that the freaking door wouldn't open. The cursed door finally opened, a gash of cold air engulfing in the flat, directly coming from the building's neat corridors.

Hana snuck her arms around her mother's waist and sighed when she heard her muffled kiss in her hair. "You're both such bad parents, abandoning your daughter to her boredom."

"Yeah, right, or you're just incredibly lazy, right?"

"That too," the teenage girl laughed, freeing her mother.

"Don't forget to lock the door, and don't let anyone in –unless it's Lynd of course. Your father has the keys, and so do I. Don't let them in the locker or else we won't be able to unlock it."

Her mother always gave her the same warnings, ever since she was old enough to stay at home alone. It was somehow moving; whatever happened, she would remain her parents' baby.

Hana waved her mom goodbye and closed the door behind her, locking it then hanging the keys on the hook at the door's left, as she had been told to.

She went back to her room and threw herself on her bed, her legs lazily sprawled on the pastel-colored blanket.

She looked at her baby, her laptop, and sighed.

That sure was going to be a long day.

* * *

-_Flashback_-

_The sun was slowly setting over Padokia, gracefully leaving room for the moon to show up in the purple sky tainted by orange hues. The last sunbeams crossed the fiery clouds pierced by the imposing Heavens Arena, travelling among the first stars timidly dotting the vivid area.  
Hundreds of birds roamed over the buildings; kites, sparrows, pigeons and many others peopled the sky before they joined their nest to rest until dawn. _

_The spectacle they could witness from the window of their master's little house wasn't any different. And it wasn't either different from the one they used to witness a few years ago. _

_The warm light cast by the fading day caressed the black-haired-man's face, reflecting on the glasses lying on his nose. He gently smiled at the three teenagers facing him –his three students. _

"_I'm really glad you came again today," he quietly said, pushing his glasses back on his nose. "You only arrived two days ago, yet it feels like you were never gone."_

"_We're glad too, Wing-san! We had to drop by your place after such a long time, after all. That's the least we could do for you and Zushi," a spiky-haired boy kindly replied as the named Zushi beamed at him. Wing noted that the boy's eyes were still as determined, as stubborn as before, the same brightness glinting in his big brown chocolate eyes. _

_A comforting silence settled between them, the kind of silence that people share after a satisfying and thorough conversation –like the one they had been having during the whole afternoon. _

_The brown-eyed boy's best friend seating by his side quietly eyed the last remnants of day disappearing behind the Tower, resting his head on his hand. A few minutes later, when the huge fireball was gone for good, he turned his dark teal eyes back to his companions, a small but playful smile dancing on his lips._

"_How long do you intend on staying, Gon, Killua?" Zushi asked, blinking a few times at his friends and breaking the silence. _

"_Well…" Gon unsurely started, scratching his chin, and then shrugging while displaying his best apologizing face, "We really don't know."_

"_Actually we don't know where to go," Killua, corrected, casually crossing his arms behind his head. "We've run out of ideas to find that old man." _

_Gon awkwardly chuckled. _

_It was true actually. Since they brought Killua back, two years and a half ago, all they did was skimming different cities, wandering in various countries, seeking for the tiniest hints, searching for the most irrelevant message, and all that to find Ging Freeccs. Yes, Ging Freeccs, one of the most glorious double-starred hunters in the world, one of the best nen users in the world, one of the most legendary people in the world… who also happened to be Gon's father. And 'one of the world's most annoying dads', as Killua often liked to express.  
Gon didn't mind though, neither did Killua, even though he appeared to be thinking the contrary. They knew that their quest to find Ging was bringing them together, that whatever happened, wherever they went, whoever they met and whenever they rested, they were together. As much as they complained, they were inwardly glad that the quest was still on-going and at the same time eager to see its end. It was contradicting, but they didn't mind. _

_Wing raised his eyes on the nomad teens. During the two days they had spent with them, they had told Zushi and him about their journey, about what they did and saw and heard when they had left the Heavens Arena. Facing the infamous thief troop Genei Ryodan, clearing the mythical game Greed Island, fighting the Chimera Ants' dangerous threat, travelling around the world again and again, discovering new places, tastes, smells, cultures… And of course, Killua didn't omit the great confrontation with the scariest monster he had ever seen –Gon's aunt Mito- with sincere care in his sharp eyes.  
They had so much to say, and none of their stories were boring. Whenever one of them started, it was impossible not to be caught up by the flow of their words. They completed each other's thoughts, their stories perfectly fitted together. Zushi's mesmerized, admiring and perhaps slightly envious gaze was enough of a proof. _

_The master closed his eyes, cutting himself from the young boys who were chatting together. _

_When he had first taught them nen, when he had been told about Gon's goal, he had decided not to help them for their expedition. He could have slid a word or two about that. But at the time, he had wanted to test them. He had wanted them to earn that little piece of info he would give them. _

_Looking back at them, he realized they had grown stronger and more mature. They had grown up, simply speaking.  
It wasn't hard to notice, first, the well-defined muscles that both of them acquired after countless physically-exhausting missions. However, Wing didn't aim at that kind of strength. Judging only from that, he wouldn't have believed they had become so strong. Yet they had.  
As he focused, he felt the stable and resolute aura they both emitted, the steady and powerful yet discrete nen they bore. That was what mostly convinced him that the Gon and Killua who visited him had changed. That wasn't the fact that they were taller, that they both had broader shoulders and backs, that they looked much less juvenile. Not at all. They sure weren't little kids anymore –they had just turned fifteen after all- but he would never have judged them on that. Wing knew they had changed because of the maturity of their aura. _

_Now he could tell them. _

"_Gon, Killua, have you ever heard of the HCDS?" he slowly questioned, opening his eyes and staring at them in the process. As they both shook their heads, he carried on, "HCDS, or Hunter Crime Department Service. Their headquarters is at York Shin City. Even though they mostly provide help for civil security, they have access to some rich archives concerning Hunters." He let out a heavy sigh, tapping his thumb on his chin. "I don't know if it could somehow help you, but I guess it wouldn't hurt to try, right?" _

_The boys exchanged a curious look. Killua dubiously scratched his head, drowning his hand in his soft mass of white hair. _

"_Well, I suppose we could find something in those said hunter archives, but I seriously doubt they'll let us have access to it without a good reason. They must be somehow confidential, right? Especially info about _the_ Ging Freeccs; it's like a taboo to even utter his name." _

"_I know about that, Killua," the master replied, taking a deep breath, "My sister works there. I'm sure she wouldn't mind helping you if you prove her you're help-worthy." _

"_Your sister?" Gon echoed, fixing the man with an inquisitive look shared by Zushi, who was silent. _

"_Yes, my sister. I told her about you two when you came back two days ago, and asked her if it would be okay to let her take care of you," he paused. Glancing at the phone on the coffee table near his armchair, he seemed lost in his thoughts for a moment. "She agreed under the condition of letting her test you." _

"_She won't trust us so easily, right?" Killua anticipated the next sentence. _

"_She never blindly trusts anyone, not even me, and I'm her brother. Even after testing you, if she does agree to help you, don't expect her to throw herself in your arms." He peeked over Zushi's shoulders to have an idea of the time. It was nearly eight P.M., a few minutes from it. _

"_What if she can't bring herself to trust us?" _

"_You don't have to worry. She is well aware I would never ask her to take care of dangerous individuals, so whatever she may think, she already knows you can't be aiming at her life or at her family's. This already removes a great load of burden –she's like a she-wolf with her family. If you're not a threat to her relatives, she won't bite. I wouldn't be so easily lied to, so she already knows I would never let anyone fairly dangerous come anywhere close to her. However, she will still try to figure out who you are alone." His eyes hardened. "I haven't told her everything about you. Just be yourself, don't try to make up for whatever the name you bear may be. Then everything will be just fine." _

_Killua looked down at his hands resting on his lap.  
A taut invisible fog choked them all down for a moment. _

"_But Wing-san…" Gon clumsily started, in an attempt to ease the atmosphere, "Whenever Killua acts like himself around women, he ends up beaten up –and he gets me beaten up too!" he pouted, crossing his arms. _

_The master chuckled and Killua nudged his friend, joking about how the spiky-haired boy just didn't know how to deal with women. His attempt was successful: the disturbing and heavy tension had evaporated.  
That was just like Gon; erasing all trace of uneasiness in a single reply. This boy had the unexplained and unexplainable ability to bring people to trust him, to lighten up, to make them want to help him. Perhaps because he wouldn't mind throwing himself into danger to save someone he barely knew. Perhaps because he was that selfless. _

"_My sister would never judge you solely based on your names, don't worry."_

"_Master," Zushi called for Wing, the first words he uttered since the past few minutes, "You seem to have great respect for your sister." _

_Wing simply smiled and nodded. Zushi was right; he did respect his sister a lot. He believed she reciprocated this respect, even though he was younger than her, even though he had always been the air-headed bad learner, the kid who wore his clothes inside out and slept during nen lessons. _

_He remembered their arguments when they were younger, the slaps and punches he would collect whenever she was mad at him –and God knew how many times she was. He remembered her fierce personality and the peculiar way she expressed her love. He remembered the oddly thin line between her bad temper and her caring self. _

_He remembered the pride in her eyes when he first showed her the nen he had finally managed to awake, when he practiced the various techniques his scary master had taught him. _

"_Wing-san?" _

_The nen master suddenly flinched. "Anyway, I don't know what you may find there, but I think it's worth a try. Accessing information on your father is nearly impossible, but you might find something else that might interest you or at least lead you in your quest." _

_Gon firmly nodded, a grin plastered on his face void of any negativity. _

"_I guess it's better than wandering without any hint, right?" Killua commented, the playful expression back in his eyes. _

_They had a lead._

"_We'd also see Kurapika and Leorio," Gon joyfully added. _

_And a reason to go. _

_Wing closed his eyes, glad that he could give them a path to follow. "I will call her back then, as soon as you leave, to tell her you are coming." The boys gratefully nodded. _

_A moth dumbly hit the window in repetitive dashes on the glass surface, attracted by the light of the ceiling lamp Zushi had switched on once the room was plunged into darkness. _

_The sun had set over Padokia. Lady Moon had now replaced the fireball that warmed up the fields and the houses during the day. The formerly timid stars were now proudly and confidently shining in the somber veil the night had wrapped the city in. Bats and owls appeared from time to time, staining the dark background with black shadows as they flew towards their preys, the little rodents and night insects that proliferated around the area. _

"_Master?" _

_The man opened his eyes at the sound of his youngest student's eyes. The two prodigies looked at him with interested eyes. _

"_What's your sister's name?" Zushi kept going, staring at him. _

_He noticed the moth had given up on going in._

"_Natsu. Her name is Natsu."_

* * *

Their blimp had landed on York Shin City about half an hour ago.

And Gon and Killua were happy.

They had actually never been that happy. They had never been that eager to see the tall buildings encircling the city, that impatient to feel the hard ground under their feet, that glad to finally breathe fresh air, to simply get out of this blimp.  
They would never have thought the 'Arrivals' banner flashing in red would have made them gasp in pure bliss, as if it had become their new Bible. Or even that fetching their suitcases on the crowded 'Luggage Recuperation' conveying belt would have given them any satisfaction –though that was partially because the only suitcase they had brought, since they didn't need any, were full of candies for a certain chocoholic.

They did have reasons to be happy.

After all, they possibly had a lead to find Gon's father, and on top of that, they would be meeting up with their friends. Wasn't it enough of a reason?  
It certainly was. But well, a lot of other factors contributed to this mutual feeling they expressed.

For example, a little girl whining every once in a while –which meant every two minutes- about how she couldn't get the new _Princess Dollie_ from the new _Princess Dollie: Fashion Fairies Glitter_ and how she just had the worst family ever –Killua wondered what it would be like if she spent an hour with _his_ family. Actually, when she changed the topic to 'having a puppy for her birthday', Gon imagined her with Mike and he came to the realization that the Zoaldyecks would make more money from allowing parents to let their puppy-craving kids see Mike for a de-I-want-puppies-fication than from their assassin business.

There was also little baby that gracefully enchanted all the passengers with its strident repetitive crying, no matter how much his mother lulled him, no matter how many diapers were changed –and this baby happened to be located just behind them, thus gracing them with the divine smell. And since this baby seemed to have "turbo-reactor intestines and an instant-refill bladder", as Killua had qualified the basic needs of this toddler, the smell accompanied them for nearly the whole flight.

They were also granted the pleasant presence of a lovey-dovey couple facing them and demonstrating their undying fondness with very discrete make-out sessions topped with noddle-slurping noises. Public display of affection had never been so subtle. And a very nice old woman thought it would be a great idea to eat tuna and onions, because perfuming the area with some nice fish scent was what everyone wished for –she probably assumed everyone missed the diapers, when the little devil finally fell asleep.

Oh yes, they _did_ have reasons to be happy.

From what Wing had told them before they left, his sister would pick them up at the blimp airport. However, they weren't sure she knew what they looked like, and they had no idea what she was like.

They tried to spot a person possibly waving at them or giving them a sign. Gon pricked up his ears, hoping to hear for someone calling them over the loud cacophony they all bathed in. A tangy smell of sweat drying to the air-conditioner enveloped them in an itchy disturbing cloud. They still felt the last remnants of cookies awakening their sweet-longing tongues; their stomachs growled at the very thought of it.

Gon yawned while scanning the crowd, and rubbed his eyes to remove the little tears that had appeared.

"I hope she finds us." He unsurely scratched his cheek, still looking for a person who might resemble Wing.

They were lost amongst the mob of tourists, businessmen, families, the suitcases and the announcements coming from the loudspeakers stuck to the high ceiling, the flashing banners on the walls and the airport employees swarming around. The hubbub was getting louder. The teens were trapped in the moving confusion caused by the people who had lost their baggage, those who were checking a map or a touristic guide to find a good restaurant, those who looked for the subway or a tram or whatever, and they both had trouble getting their bearing and finding their way.

However, they noticed a disrupting yet faint aura was surrounding them. They couldn't know who exactly was tracking them because of the furiously dizzy mob, but they were sure that they were being subject to someone else's nen.

"We're being watched," Killua quietly noted, leaning on the candy-filled luggage.

"Yeah. And not by your average nen user. I feel like we're being examined."

Killua shrugged, digging in his pockets with hopes to find a lost candy, but he only met with the unwrapped papers that used to cover the sweets he had gulped down.

He was mumbling that life was a bitch when a woman came toward them with loud steps.

"Oi!" She called out to them, switching her eyes from them to a piece of paper she was holding and briefly waving at them the same way she'd have done so for a cab. "You must be Gon and Killua?"

They stared at her, taken aback by how direct she was. Still dumbstruck from the sudden appearance of that woman, the boys babbled something until they found their words.

"Huh, yeah! That's us," Gon managed an answer, offering a polite smile.

"I'm Natsu."

Killua raised an eyebrow.  
She didn't look a lot like Wing, or at least physically. And from the brutal way she talked, the furrowed eyebrows above her blade-casting eyes, her impatiently crossed arms that clearly showed they were bothering her, he guessed her personality was nowhere near Wing's either. However, they had both noticed one side of her shirt wasn't folded in her jeans, unlike the other one.

_Yep, that's Wing's sister_, Killua thought.

"Wing told me about you two, though I still need to question you. I'd suggest going to my office at the headquarters, we'll be more comfortable discussing there. It's way too noisy here." She waved keys in front of them. "I'll bring you there."

Without any further ado, she gestured them to follow her.

She was clenching her fist on car keys. If they could talk, they'd have begged anyone to save them from the strong grip she had on them. Gon almost expected them to whimper.

Was she actually bringing them to her car without even knowing who they were? Sure, she said she wanted to talk in a more secluded area, but how could she be certain it was safe to bring them there?

That was when they both realized. The aura they had felt got slightly stronger since they started following her, and then it suddenly disappeared. Goosebumps ran down Killua's lean arms. Gon's determined eyes turned on him.  
That woman knew what she was doing.

The test had already begun.

* * *

They reached the exit without exchanging any word. A few taxis were proposing their services to lost travelers that needed a ride to their hotel. They kept walking a few meters until Natsu stopped in front of a car, seemingly fighting with the keys to fit them in the locker and cursing under her breathe.

The sun shined bright, really bright, and a bit too bright actually. Killua covered his eyes, squinting and quizzically watching the woman scowling at the innocent engine. He mockingly imagined that activists might someday find reasons to campaign for "inanimate objects' rights", and in that case, Natsu would be in a right mess.

Finally, she unlocked the car door and pointed the back seats with her chin. "Get in," she ordered moving to the other side of the engine.

"Hm, could I put the suitcase in the trunk?" Gon cautiously asked, rubbing his nape.

"Did you plan on sitting on it? Of course you can. You're not gonna tie it to the wheels." Spotting the big backpacks both of them had, she narrowed her eyes at the bigger luggage. "What's inside the suitcase?"

"Candies," Killua casually answered, stretching his arms while his friend fitted the valise in the trunk. "_My_ candies."

"Well, that was also _your_ suitcase, so you could have done it yourself," Gon scolded him.

Natsu blinked, puzzled, muttering something supposed to be for herself but that Gon effortlessly caught. "You needed a whole valise for candies…"

"I know, right?" He simply added, but Killua barely reacted. At least, he had his candies. 'Survivor candies kit', an absolute must.

The woman shrugged and took the driver seat, slamming the door and starting the car. Once Gon and Killua were behind her, they were ready to go.

The way to the town center was a bit long, since they had to go through the highway. The road trip was quiet until they reached the traffic lights that flashed red.

Natsu stopped the car.

The previously bright sun had disappeared behind heavy clouds that ceaselessly poured their dull rain on the modern scenery. York Shin's weather changes were as abrupt as a pregnant woman's mood swings, as fast as a toddler's lightning-speed growth, as violent as puberty hitting a teen, as rushed as an adult's busy life and as heavy as the burden seniors seemed to carry on their backs as they grew old. The windshield wipers described wide arcs of circle to clear the blurry view of the water rushing on the glass in sinuous trickles. The melody of the rain hitting the car was soothing.

"Miss?" Gon first tried.

No reaction.

"Natsu-san?" He kept going, resolute to talk to her.

Still no reaction.

"Hm… Natsu?"

"Yeah?"

"Was that your nen back in the airport?"

The woman's fingers previously impatiently hitting the steering wheel had frozen.

"You had been examining us even before you called us, right?" Killua backed his friend, holding the dumbfounded gaze Natsu stared at them with.

"You had noticed?" she faintly whispered, but the horns of the annoyed drivers behind hers reminded her that the light had turned green. She turned back to the wheel and drove past the traffic lights.

"We couldn't tell who exactly was tracking us, but we did feel it."

"I think we realized it was you when we started following you. Wing-san had told us you wouldn't trust us so we understood it must be your way to get to know us," Gon explained, watching for a reaction.

She checked the way was free before she turned right on a grand avenue fringed with tall plane trees.

"I'm surprised you could feel it. It was supposed to be faint enough to spy on you while being unnoticed."

_Liar_, Killua thought, _you wanted to know if we were strong enough._

He turned to the window, leaning on the armrest and betting on which droplet would finish its precipitate race at the base of the window panes. He chose two droplets that seemed to compete together and named them Speedy and Gonzales, specifically cheering –such a big word, coming from Killua- for Speedy. Sticking his nose on the icy glass, he observed his protégé devouring its smaller fellows and joining bigger rain threads. But Killua probably wasn't the best cheerleader, since Speedy miserably lost. He internally snarled and wiped the steam his hot breathe had left on the window.

"Dammit," the woman hissed, infuriately hitting the horn in the middle of the wheel, as a four-wheel drive in front of them halted, "Why would you park in the middle of the road, jerk!"

It might also be because she was cheering for Speedy too.

She doubled the punches on the horn, as if it would magically teleport the painfully unnerving driver inside a volcano. Killua snickered, though he got interrupted by the assassin glare the woman shot him with out of the corner of her eyes. Once she swiveled back to the road, Gon slapped his friend's arm, shaking his head in a disapproving way. He was probably realizing he was right when he joked to Wing about how Killua couldn't behave around women. Or around people in general, for that matter.

They had taken a deserted street with a few parking slots on the side, facing a bank. A few people in their twenties were smoking together on the grass, in front of a banner prohibiting smoking in that area.

"Natsu, what exactly is the HCDS?" Gon inquired, while she was leaning forward to check for the banners on the street. His head had been full of questions since Wing made them discover this group.

"Hasn't Wing told you?"

"He said it was taking care of civil security," Killua joined the debate.

"Not quite," she corrected while having a keen eye on the road. "We're not making kids safely cross the road." She rolled eyes. "We mostly take care of crime cases."

"Like, investigation? Solving cases of assassinations and such?" The boy raised an eyebrow over his dubious teal eyes.

"Yeah. Sorta."

"What makes it different from a normal police station then, is it the type of cases you take care of?"

She briefly looked at Gon who had just answered his own question.

"Exactly. We take care of cases the police can't solve, because nen was involved, because the criminals are on another level; because the criminals are attacking the Mafia or because the Mafia or any important party urges us to take care of a case. Because the criminals are hunters too, but not necessarily, and many more reasons. We often associate with policemen whenever they realize the case they work on requires more than technological supplies; there's no machine that can detect nen for you."

Killua tapped a finger on his chin. "And who works at the HCDS? Blacklist Hunters?"

"Any hunter, as long as they apply to work at the HCDS. They can be full-time agents like me, or part-time agents who can be contacted when needed. Of course not anyone can apply to it. You have a test to pass once you're selected, after sending your info."

"Like a second hunter exam?" Gon suggested.

"Sort of, except you'll be working on actual cases with professionals who'll grade you on the way you handle those cases."

A smirk brushed Killua's lips. "Which is what you'll make us do."

Natsu's silence and the focused frown carved in her forehead were enough of an answer. She seemed to realize she wouldn't be dealing with common hunters.

Gon was still processing the info dump. So basically hunters had a sort of police-hunters organization? He felt a bit odd about this; how come he had never heard of it, if it was that important?

His friend seemed to echo his thoughts when he asked his next question. "It's weird though, I had never heard of this HCDS thing. Are you guys hidden?"

The woman scoffed. "I wouldn't be bringing you, two strangers, to the headquarters if we were. Whenever a case is solved by one or many of us agents, the HCDS or the agent's name are never mentioned; the police takes cover for our actions and deals with the penal issues. There's no need for us to appear on the public field, it would only bring trouble to us. Also, since we're mostly linked to a special city, like York Shin City where our headquarters are based, we generally don't act much outside the city, unless we're assigned a particular mission. That's why we're not that popular. We don't need to."

As they passed by a train station, Killua checked the time on the massive clock embedded in the main wall; it was almost noon. He actually wondered why he fretted about the time; he could have precisely guessed it without any help. Since Gon and he rarely had access to external hour-giving tools, they got used to their internal clocks based on their surroundings and themselves, and since Killua's stomach was furiously lecturing him with irritating growls to subtly alert him that it was empty, conjecturing the time would have been elementary.

He glanced at his left and saw his friend was suffering the same hunger; none of them had the guts to eat anything in the blimp, in the midst of those putrid smells of diapers mixed with tuna and onions.

"Are the headquarters still far?" Killua whined.

"About thirty more kilometers to roll, then cross the bridge, and then you're half an hour from the Netero Street where you can park your car and walk ten minutes to reach the gates of the HCDS headquarters, knowing that you'll have to fulfill some security requirements and that the weather forecasting predicted the rain was about to last the whole afternoon, which means you'll finally enter the frozen air-conditioned basement in about forty-five minutes, soaked. How does that sound?"

"Thrilling."

He threw his head back and covered his face with both his hands, stretching his numb skin.

He looked at his friend, the patient Gon, and sighed.

That sure was going to be a long day.

* * *

A/N: Ha, there. I had a lot of fun writing this chapter. Oh and, Lynd is Hana's friend.

So, what do you think about it? Do you like Natsu? And what are your first thoughts about Hana? You'll get to know her more as the story processes. Any question? The HCDS is a random thing my brain thought of… I'll explain more about it later.

Don't worry, I'm not pairing Killua with Natsu, obviously. I know Hana didn't do much here but even if she's not a hunter, she's not useless. And since she's the only one who's around Gon and Kil's age… *wink wink*

Okay, I know that wasn't a very subtle wink.

Anyway, thanks for reading and I hope you'll review and let me hear your thoughts.  
Buh Bye!


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